Posts Tagged ‘YouTube’

Happy Birthday, maestro Ennio Morricone, born November 10, 1928! His 60’s stuff is just brilliant and have been such an influence on me. Very few composers managed to pull off such a great mix of contemporary “pop” sounds with both avant garde and classical music. No matter the subject, budget or any other constraints, every film benefitted from his work. It’s iconic these days, but back in the mid-60’s, his The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly soundtrack was deemed quite futuristic and genre defying.

Treat yourself to some marvellous sounds by checking out Morricone Rocks‘ amazing playlist on YouTube, collecting tons of his work (that I wrote about earlier here) at http://www.youtube.com/user/MorriconeRocks, and how about giving my Morricone-inspired EP The Ghost of Lee Van Cleef a spin below:

Well, this is pretty damn cool: Just got hepped to the works of Peter Ahern and Amy Pisco (aka Optic Candy) and you gotta check this out. A perfect juxtaposition of cute and disturbing (kinda like my dates, ha ha ha), the couple (?) focus on mainly animation with some cool artwork thrown in for good measure.

Their portfolio is pretty impressive with works done for Nickelodeon, The Walking Dead and a French yoghurt manufacturer I’m not too sure people in the States have heard of. Check out their blog at http://opticcandy.wordpress.com and their official YouTube channel here. How about a show reel?

Like this:

Well, here’s a project that easily scores a 95 on the Nerdgasm-o-Meter for it’s sheer creativity and awesomeness: Docterror.com‘s 8-Bits From Hell! Taking their cue from classic Nintendo Entertainment System games such as Friday the 13th, artist Frank Browning with musician Sean O’Connor (under the Hacktivision moniker) set out to emulate these games – with a horror twist to sweeten things up.

How about Lucio Fulci‘s Zombie Flesh Eaters (that’s Zombi 2 for those in the States) complete with a zombie-vs-shark sequence (and infamous eye-gouging scene), Lamberto Bava‘s 80s gorefest Demons (yes, you can choose motorcycle man mode), and even Cannibal Holocaust (yikes!)? All staying surprisingly true to the celluloid originals – which is more than you could say about some of these games back in the 1980s. More goodies include Hell of the Living Dead, Black Christmas and Absurd (aka The Grim Reaper).

Only existing as videos on YouTube (along with additional coolness such as screenshots, promo artwork and instructions via their webpage), these mock-ups got both horror fans and NES enthusiasts salivating, urging them to actually make this a reality. I for one agree and would be more than happy to chip in some money to fund a Kickstarter project. Maybe if word gets around it’ll happen?

Good evening kiddies!
And welcome to the House of Horrors! Where twist isn’t just a dance – it’s a state of mind as well! Join us tonight as your host Bela Boris offers up quite a collection of concocted compositions – or was that DE-compositions? – unearthed from the vaults as we launch our first annual Horrific Halloween Twist-a-Rama!

Yes, ghoulfriends and boyfiends, it’s time to do the Mash, the Squat, and the Fly once again. Wave your hands, shake that hair, scream if you have to – but don’t lose your head, we’re looking forward to do that later on ourselves!

Well, here’s something that’s both funny and cute: Union Pool‘s series Bunnies. Created and produced by Jennifer Shiman, these animated shorts re-enacts various films in one minute or less – with an all bunny cast.

Hey! It’s Friday the 13th! You know what that means. Yeah, a lot of us horror nerds will be plopping down on the couch with a choice installment of the classic slasher series. My personal fave is Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (aka “Part 4” I guess) where the characters are at their most cardboard-y and Tom Savini ups the ante when it comes to gory FX.

Speaking of which: Tom is crowdsourcing his coming zombie epic Death Island! Sounding like a throwback to the classic Haitian zombie theme (think White Zombie, Zombi 2 or even The Serpent and the Rainbow) he’s got a nice cast including Tony Todd (that appeared in his remake of Night of the Living Dead) and is looking for one million dollars to get this made. I found an article about it here, check out the campaign on Indiegogohere (I’m totally contemplating chipping in some $$$!) and join him on Facebookhere.

While on that subject I gotta admit it is the weirdest damn coincidence that he’s launching said movie project when I recently finished a similar soundtrack project. How’s that for timing? I already sent a head’s up to my license agency. The stars are aligning…

More horrors can be found as they have been posted on my Society 6! Got four new art prints this week: Demons 1 and Demons 2 (a sort of visceral update of Lamberto Bava‘s 80s gore fest of the same name) and two abstract/psychedelic pieces called Stardust and Fire and Ice. I’m mildly irked by the latter two as I was forced to censor them in order to post the pictures on Facebook as there were some boobage to be seen. Something that apparently “some” people (who are they any way?) have a problem with. Sounds like “some” people got Mommy issues.

US-based blog Trust Me, I’m a Scientist is easily one of my personal faves, always delivering thought-provoking articles covering all things creative, with a focus on music. Their recent post How to Become the Best at What You Do should be of interest for anyone who wants to perfect a skill, and I highly recommend it. Among other things it proves that talent is a very abstract concept – if it even exists – and is secondary to basic hard work. The article The Quirky Habits of Great Mixers (via Sonic Scoop) is also of interest for the fellow audiophile, so check ’em both out.

More nerdgasms came (hyuck!) when AMC premiered a short teaser from the coming fourth season of The Walking Dead. Typically they’ve blocked it for us non-US citizens, so go here to watch it on YouTube.

Remember that weird story about restaurant owners in Oklahoma finding a huge 300-lb. monument on their lawn that claimed ownership of the land in the name of (H.P. Lovecraft‘s) Azathoth? Well, mystery solved. It was a student prank. And here I was awaiting The Arrival.

Music-wise I’ve recently finished Call Me Greenhorn‘s oddly-titled Pink Hulk that really sees me, uh, getting down playing with my organ (ahem). Soon to be remixed in a couple of dub variations (I was thinking at least two) and released as yet another dubmusic.com exclusive, I posted the track on my SoundCloud, but you can give it a spin below. Have a nice weekend!

Oh man, do I wish I’d stumbled across this video in time for August 18! A friend in New York hepped me to stelos485 (sorry, couldn’t find any name) who creates various cartoon music videos for bands like The Beatles and Bad Brains, but most importantly The Ramones!

This is sheer fan-boy joy to watch! There’s a Bedrock version of Listen To My Heart, a Twilight Zone-inspired I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement (you’ve seen the movie Don’t Go Down in the Basement btw?), Judy is a Punk, and – my personal fave – a grindhouse version of Chain Saw that sees the bruddahs smack-dab in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre going head to head with the Sawyer family!

Yeah, well it might seem a bit premature with some 160+ days until Halloween (I’m not too sure exactly how many days that are left as it is more Eva Halloween‘s speciality), but I finished up the sleeve for Call Me Greenhorn‘s October release The Ghost of Lee Van Cleef last night and thought I’d share it with you.

A weird kinda blend of 1960’s Halloween novelty songs and the spaghetti western sounds of Ennio Morricone, the song is a tribute to one of the best bad guys of cinema – bar none. Being a big fan of Sergio Leone I had my initial introduction via the epic The Good The Bad The Ugly and have tried my best to check out his work based on that performance. Like the maestro himself once stated: His eyes pierce the screen.

The sleeve itself is a mutation of the poster for the 1967 Death Rides a Horse directed by Giulio Petroni (and also starring John ‘Danger: Diabolik’ Phillip Law) as it is in the public domain and therefore free for any use you might see fit. The two-track “single” – yeah yeah I still got issues with calling a digital release something that used to mean a physical object – is due to be released October 1st, but as always I’ll keep you posted. In the mean time, make sure to check out Petroni’s very Leone-esque film. You can download it for free (and legally!) via Archive.org or watch it in full on YouTube.

Whoa Nellie! Well, I’ve been made aware that I have a tendency to blitz through things and just don’t leave enough time – or room – to fully promote the stuff I do. I gotta admit that is a character trait of mine. I’m so engulfed in the creation part of the process that once I’m finished with it I kinda just leave it and move on to the next thing. So with that in mind, here’s a sampler of what I’ve done lately and your chance to catch up with it all:

A brand-new, bit darker track that won’t appear on the coming S/T album due to be released in June. Check it out on my SoundCloud as well.

Call Me Greenhorn – Here Comes Gorbot (video)

New video for the CMGH2 aka The Abandoned Project album directed by Robert Griffith from The Adventures of Superseven and Sandra West, starring Olivia Dunkley and Jerry Kokich – the latter as Gorbot. Good fun! Check it out on my YouTube as well.

Call Me Greenhorn – The Titan Was Deemed Unsinkable

The first “darker” track that actually will be included on CMGH‘s debut. I love 70’s Jamaican dub and I’m satisfied with the results. Check that one out on my SoundCloud while you’re at it.

Call Me Greenhorn – Armageddon Dub (video)

And finally we have the kick-ass video for Armageddon Dub directed by brilliant UK photographer Robert Boud. His haunting imagery was a perfect fit for this track and I’m so stoked he agreed to do this. Check out the single on my Bandcamphere and the video on YouTubehere, and make sure to visit his official page for a taste of his other works!

So there we go! Make sure you spread this around and stay tuned for more updates!

This is pretty damn neat: A fan video of original grungers – yes, they pretty much help invent the damn genre – Steel Pole Bath Tub‘s Train to Miami using footage from the Spanish horror classic Horror Express. It’s a win, baby! Taken from their 1993 album The Miracle of Sound in Motion released on Boner Records.

The ‘Tub was an aquired taste, but I am personally convinced that their brand of ugly noise and twisted drones was the initial seedling that later evolved to the doom and sludge sounds found in today’s metal scene. Along with outfits like The Melvins (whom they shared label with) they took the first steps towards stoner rock – to much chagrin from the underground community that was too hung up on not allowing bands to create whatever the hell popped into their heads insisting a maintenance of the status quo – and IMO you’d gotta be pretty damn deaf to miss that one.

The 1972 outing Horror Express is actually one of my personal faves in the genre. During the 80’s I spent many late Thursday nights glued to Super Channel as they aired cheap (?) horror movies and this mummy/zombie/evil creature feature made quite an impression on me. Considered to be in the public domain you can actually download it legally via Archive.org or watch it in full on YouTube.